Method of manufacturing droplet ejection head

Abstract

In a method for manufacturing a droplet ejection head, a structure of a substrate having an energy-generating element that imparts energy to a liquid to eject a liquid droplet from an ejection orifice and an orifice plate having the ejection orifice formed therein are laminated through a flow channel member for forming a pattern of a liquid flow channel that is a region in which the liquid flows. At least one of a plate before being laminated and the flow channel member before being laminated has a void of at least one of a through-hole other than the ejection orifice and a recess in the face to be laminated.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to a droplet ejection head such as an ink jet recording head, and a method for manufacturing the same.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]A droplet ejection head is used in a wide range of applications such as a printer, an apparatus for manufacturing a display component and a medical inhaler, and is expected to be applied to many industries in the future as well. As a droplet ejection head used in a printer, an ink jet recording head is used which can eject a droplet with high density and high accuracy.[0005]The ink jet recording head has a head structure such as electric wires and an ejection orifice for ejecting an ink droplet therethrough provided on a substrate made of silicon or the like. The head structure includes an ink flow channel through which ink flows on a substrate, a flow channel member for surrounding the ink flow channel, an orifice plate provided with an ejection...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention aims to provide a droplet ejection head that can prevent the flexing of the orifice plate and reduce its impact even if the plate is made thinner or the gap between the energy-generating element and the plate is decreased. The invention has a simple and easy structure to achieve this objective.

Problems solved by technology

However, in some of the ink jet recording heads manufactured by such a manufacturing method, there have been cases where the flow channel member and the orifice plate are not ideally bonded to each other and such a phenomenon occurs where the orifice plate locally protrudes toward an ejection direction.

If such a flexure occurs in the orifice plate, the ejection direction of the droplet occasionally results in tilting from the desired direction to which the droplet should be ideally ejected.

In addition, there are cases where the ejection speed and the volume of the droplet to be ejected results in changing because the energy of the droplet necessary for ejection changes.

These phenomena are crucial because of causing a print pattern failure of the printer.

However, the orifice plate has a tendency of decreasing its rigidity as it becomes thin, and accordingly has a tendency of causing local flexure in the orifice plate when it is laminated.

When the thickness of the orifice plate becomes particularly 10 μm or less, it may become difficult even to handle the orifice plate, and the plate tends to easily cause flexure or deformation.

However, as the gap between the energy-generating element and the ejection orifice becomes smaller, the variation in the gap distances due to the flexure of the orifice plate produces a relatively large influence on the performance.

If the orifice plate contacts the energy-generating element, there are cases where foaming to be caused by a heater is disturbed and there are cases where the ink thereby cannot be ejected.

Accordingly, when it is intended to make the orifice plate thinner or decrease the gap between the energy-generating element and the orifice plate, for the purpose of lowering the power consumption, the influence of the flexure of the orifice plate becomes more serious.

The causes of the above described flexure of the orifice plate may include non-uniformity of the pressure applied when the orifice plate is pressure-bonded, low flatness of the flow channel member surface and the orifice plate surface, and deformation of the orifice formed during the manufacturing thereof.

However, there is a limit even when the uniformity of the pressure-bonding pressure and the flatness of a face to be bonded are improved, and it may be difficult to enhance the yield of the head only by the above methods.

It may also be difficult to provide such an effect as to suppress the flexure that may locally occur in the orifice plate when the orifice plate is simply pressure-bonded with the flow channel member as in a conventional technology.

In addition, the method of providing a joint-assisting member between the flow channel member and the orifice plate as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-18392 is disadvantageous in terms of the cost by an additional process of using the joint-assisting member.

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